If you were a big fan of Zenyatta, you'd better get to Saratoga Race Course on Saturday afternoon. Her half sister, a 4-year-old named Eblouissante, is set to make her third career start in the Grade III, $200,000 Shuvee Handicap.

Eblouissante (pronounced (A-blue-e-Sant) is trained by John Shirreffs, who also trained Zenyatta.

Shirreffs, who moved his horses east after training in California, had the option of running Eblouissante, winner of two career starts, in an easier spot on Monday. But he decided to go ahead to the Shuvee instead of an optional claimer.

"I think she will be fine," Shirreffs said outside his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track on Friday morning. "We just wanted to keep our options open."

Eblouissante was ridden by Cory Nakatani in her two starts in California. She will have Junior Alvarado on her back in the Shuvee, which drew seven other fillies and mares. Eblouissante is the 7-2 third choice.

This will be her first start since winning her second start on Jan. 17 at Santa Anita. Shirreffs said Eblouissante had some nagging problems, including a hoof abscess.

Now, she is good, and Shirreffs doesn't seem to have any concern about her stepping up in class.

"She is really going to have to step up her game," Shirreffs said. "We'll see. It's been a long time, and it's a change in surfaces from what she's been running on."

The favorite in the race is the 7-5 Authenticity, from trainer Todd Pletcher. She has won two of five starts this year, including the Grade II La Troienne at Churchill Downs on May 3.

Orb going to work

Kentucky Derby winner Orb is scheduled to have his third work at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland on Saturday. Trainer Shug McGaughey will travel to watch it and then return here for the Saratoga races.

McGaughey has decided that Orb just will train up to the Grade I, $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 24. He had toyed with the idea of running in the Jim Dandy Stakes a week from Saturday.

"He is doing so well down there," said McGaughey, who added that Orb will ship to Saratoga in two weeks. "As long as I can keep him away from being at the races and being around all this (activity on the Oklahoma Training Center), the better I am going to be."

Orb hasn't raced since finishing third in the Belmont Stakes on June 8. By the time the Travers gets here, it will have been 77 days since he last raced, the longest gap in his career.

"Most horses thrive with time between races," McGaughey said. "It doesn't matter that it's going to be that long. I can get him ready to run."

Pletcher: No meet extension

If you ask Todd Pletcher, the Saratoga meet is just fine the way it is. There is no need to extend it beyond the current length of 40 days.

Of course, no one has come out and said the New York Racing Association is going to make it longer. But you always hear people saying it should be longer because business is better upstate than it is at Belmont Park downstate.

"There is not one reason why (Saratoga) works," Pletcher said. "It's a lot of different reasons. It's a shorter period, so it maintains some of its charm because of that. One thing they have to be too careful about is not extending it too much. Like I have always said, no matter how many golf tournaments Tiger Woods plays, if he plays 365 days a year, people have got other things to do."